A record of my journey through yarn projects

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Something New…

Lately, I’ve been a bit bored with my usual pursuits, and I ended up trying a couple of new creative outlets. Gel printing was one, and the other – weaving.

I experimented with a cardboard sheet, some reclaimed yarn from a UFO, and a tapestry needle. I cut notches into the cardboard to use as slots for warping the yarn. I wanted to see if I’d like the repetitive back and forth action of weaving.

It wasn’t bad, though it might have been a tad too repetitive. I’m guessing that was because I had no pattern or design to follow.

I love the cheerful colors!

I made two striped placemat-like rectangles, the first with taut warp threads and a little less squishing of the weft thread, and the second with less tension in the warp threads plus more squished weft. The second one turned out just a big longer, if you haven’t guessed yet. 🙂 It was fuller but also less neater. I like the weaving feel of the first attempt better, but I’m not sure if the warp was too tight. Hope that in time, I’ll learn what the right tension is.

Speaking of tension, beginner weavers need to be cautious about not working the weft too tightly. Tight weft causes the warp threads to get pulled towards the center, and the rectangle ends up with a narrower center compared to the edges. I was pleased to see that I had managed mostly constant width in the rectangles – not bad for a first attempt.

I made and fixed my first mistake too – I missed a warp thread and had to undo a couple of rows of weft to fix it. I miss knit-fixes that involve undoing only a column (or two) of stitches! 😛 But now I wonder if I could have just left the mistake as is, and it would eventually have gotten hidden.

Can you tell the first attempt from the second? 🙂

I could retain these rectangles as placemats, or combine them with one or two more to make a table runner. Regardless of which route I’ll go, I thought a single-crochet border for each rectangle wouldn’t hurt.

I’m trying out a third rectangle. I’d like to use a pattern for it but I’m not sure if it’d work well, because the weft threads are too widely spaced apart. (After all, notches on these cardboard sheets can only be so close together.)

I’ve not decided yet if I like weaving, but I’m definitely going to try some more “crude” creations before I start wondering if investing in a loom will help me decide better. 😉 What do you think – some basic tapestry after the third placemat/runner rectangle?

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6 thoughts on “Something New…”

Warning, it might get very addictive very quickly. A loom is nice because even a simple rigid-heddle loom would give you a lot of flexibility. I don’t know if you could manage pick up or finger manipulation techniques on your card at the moment? That could be fun to experiment with but would probably look better on a finer warp. If you don’t want a solid loom, there’s something called tablet weaving, where you have a series of squares joined together with specific notches cut in them, that looks like a mind-puzzle to do! Good luck with your adventure.

That’s very informative, thank you! I’d definitely invest in a loom if I feel weaving is for me, but trying to understand if it’s for me feels difficult without investing upfront! 🙂 I’ll experiment with pick-up / hand manipulation techniques on my simple setup, even if just to figure out if I like the act of weaving something non-basic. There’s a lot to learn and try out, and I’m hoping I’ll have a fun journey as well!

I had a mini weaving loom as a child and I loved weaving. It was small, so all I could weave were things for my dolls (carpets and blankets to the doll house I made on a shelf) and scarfs. Probably similar in size to your placemats, which are lovely and I think the tapestry idea is a good one, too.
I’m also super impressed that you actually made your own weaving loom!

Aw I would’ve loved to weave things for a doll house as a little girl! You must’ve been quite pleased with (and proud of) your handmade creations. 🙂
My loom is quite limiting right now, because I’m not sure I can do anything other than basic weaving with it. I saw a youtube tutorial that attached nails to a frame to achieve a finer warp, but lazy-me thinks that’s too much work just to figure out if I like a new craft! 😛

I loved making stuff for the dolls, sewing for them (by hand and on sewing machine), weaving, and also cutting their hair off and attaching new hair made of yarn 😉
Maybe try a few more basic items on your loom, like a scarf or something similar, and see if you are willing to invest in a more advanced loom?

That’s quite the repertoire of crafts for a kid! No wonder you’re good at crafty stuff as an adult too. Starting early does have its benefits. 🙂
I’ll definitely be experimenting more with the crude loom, after spending some time trying for closer notches. (The ‘teeth’ between the current notches have already bent a little so I’ll probably have to think a bit on this, or maybe I’ll just stick two sheets together for a sturdier one.)